In January 2017, Thierry Jamin announced on the internet that supposed "mummified bodies and organs" had been discovered in southern Peru in January 2016, that he had been able to obtain some of them, and that he interpreted them as possible «biological relics belonging to unknown terrestrial species or species from outside our planet». On behalf of the Inkari Cusco Institute, he organizes a fundraiser on the participatory financing site
Ulule, which enables him, on March 12, 2017, to collect € with the aim of "carrying out in various laboratories of international renown the complete analyses" of these "materials". According to Thierry Jamin's website the "biological material samples" are delivered to three laboratories on 3 May 2017. In a video dated 20 June 2017, Jamin asserts, following a supposed X-ray of one (or more) of the supposed "mummies" that it would be a female with eggs in the abdomen and, consequently, an unknown species. On July 11, 2017, a conference takes place at Lima's Swiss Hotel, presented by
ufologist Jaime Maussan in the company of José de la Cruz Rios and José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, which reveals nothing new or specific; simultaneously, Thierry Jamin, who had previously announced that he would attend the Swiss Hotel conference, exhibits live on YouTube the results of his own analyses, concluding that there is nothing extraterrestrial about the mummies on display.
Reactions On June 28, 2017, Professor Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi of the Division of Paleontology at the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York denounced the scientific sham represented by the so-called "alien mummy of Nasca". He also appears in the report of the French magazine
66 minutes broadcast on the M6 channel on 28 January 2018; in which he states that these mummies are probably an assemblage of animal skeletal remains, and that no evidence has been provided to support the hypothesis that they are the skeletons of an unknown species of extraterrestrial origin> On 8 July 2017, a group of twelve Peruvian and international experts (bio-anthropologists, specialists in the study and conservation of human remains including mummies) issued a statement through the World Congress on Mummy Studies denouncing the fraud of "extraterrestrial mummies". It states that these productions are "undoubtedly human remains
Pre-Columbians [...] manipulated and even mutilated to obtain an 'ad hoc' appearance for commercial exploitation". The press release goes on to denounce the authors of these productions and those exploiting them, calling these practices "criminal abuse" that "violates human dignity in a profound way", as well as "numerous national and international norms that watch for the defense of Cultural Heritage". On July 13, 2017, American archaeologist Carl Feagans concluded that it was a "
hoax". On August 3, 2017, anthropology professors John Hoopes and Jennifer Raff of the
University of Kansas call the project pseudoscientific and denounce its lack of respect for indigenous peoples. On October 28, 2019, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Peru demands that the National University San Luis Gonzaga de Ica (controversial) to hand over to the Peruvian state the "fake alien mummies" described as "human remains", explaining that "during the two visits, SDC Ica staff were unable to enter the site where the remains are located, the first time due to the absence of the Vice-Rector for Research, and the second time by decision of the Vice-Rector, despite his own invitation, who proposed scheduling the visit to take photos of the presumed archaeological remains for November 5 this year". On , at a session of the Mexican Congress devoted to UFOs, journalist and
ufologist Jaime Maussan declared authentic these «Peruvian three-fingered mummies», presenting them as potential evidence of non-human life forms, and stating that scientists from the
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) had concluded that these remains were «not part of our terrestrial evolution» and that almost a third of their
DNA was «of unknown origin». This presentation was criticized by many experts as a hoax denied by the scientific community;
Julieta Norma Fierro Gossman, a physics researcher at UNAM, said the university had never reached such conclusions, that many of the analysis presented by Maussan «made no sense» scientifically and were based only on beliefs. UNAM further republished its September 2017 statement, clarifying that it had drawn no conclusions as to the origin of a sample sent to it for
Carbon-14 analysis and that it had not carried out any other type of analysis.
Wired summarized these reactions by stating that the scientific consensus was unanimous regarding the fact that the «mummies» presented by Maussan are in reality a counterfeit archaeological artifact, citing in particular the conclusions of Flavio Estrada, forensic archaeologist who analyzed the mummies for the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Public Ministry of Peru, that the remains of the alleged extraterrestrials «are creations made of animal and human bones held together with synthetic glue, which have been covered with fake skin». On , at a second session of the Mexican UFO Congress, Jaime Maussan, together with anthropologist Roger Zúñiga Avilés (of the controversial declared, with the support of a group of Peruvian doctors, that the specimens were probably false but that the bodies were real. ==Publications==